Audio 3:27
Nauru calls for Australia to help fund justice system

Simon LauderUpdated
Thu Sep 12 08:45:00 EST 2013

When he does form his government, Tony Abbott will be forced to address the issue of Australia's unusual relationship with Nauru and according to the Chief Justice of the island nation, Geoffrey Eames, that should include bolstering Nauru's justice system because scores of asylum seekers who are facing charges there wouldn't be if it weren't for Australia.

Transcript

TIM PALMER: When he does form his government, Tony Abbott will be forced to address the issue of Australia's unusual relationship with Nauru. And according to the chief justice of the island nation, that should include bolstering Nauru's justice system, because scores of asylum seekers facing charges there wouldn't be if it weren't for Australia.

Justice Geoffrey Eames says 98 people are still facing charges over the July riot at Australia's asylum seeker processing centre on Nauru, which caused an estimated $60 million worth of damage.

Nauru's government has turned to Australia to fund some defence lawyers, an extra prosecutor and a new court room.

Justice Eames told Simon Lauder if Australia doesn't come to the party, it will be impossible for the accused men to get a fair trial.

GEOFFREY EAMES: The courthouse is a tiny little building, quite charming and all the rest of it, but rat-infested and extremely inadequate for the staff and for the number of people who will be processed .

These cases can't be processed unless there's a courthouse which is adequate for the purpose.

SIMON LAUDER: So, if those funds aren't provided and there isn't a new courthouse, and you say those cases can't be processed, what will happen?

GEOFFREY EAMES: Well presumably if we can gain adequate representation for prosecution and defence, we will presumably get started with the existing facilities. It will be an extraordinarily slow process, but one where we have to ensure that the accused people are getting a fair trial.

The constitution of Nauru provides that not only must defendants be given a fair trial, but they must be given a speedy trial. So that's not merely an aspiration, it's a constitutional requirement that those two conditions are met.

SIMON LAUDER: So that's what's at stake here: the right of these men to a fair trial?

GEOFFREY EAMES: Precisely.

SIMON LAUDER: I suppose some people might say these men have been charged under Nauruan law, not Australian law, so why should it be Australia's responsibility to provide the resources for a fair trial to take place?

GEOFFREY EAMES: Well, they wouldn't be there but for the Australian Government and Australian laws determining that they were to be transferred to Nauru. So it's plainly an Australian responsibility which they can't simply ignore.

SIMON LAUDER: So that would seem to indicate that whatever deal was done between the Nauruan government and Australian Government over Nauru taking asylum seekers from Australia, it perhaps didn't include an upgrade of the justice system to, I guess this wasn't foreseen.

GEOFFREY EAMES: Well, I'd imagine that that's certainly the case because the Nauruan government has been extremely sympathetic to the concerns which I've expressed and their sympathy, of course, is limited by their funding.

And Nauru is a very small, very poor country. The sorts of resources that are required as a result of the huge influx of people to Nauru and the huge number of people who are now coming before the courts was obviously not anticipated and it's created an emergency situation which, if it's not dealt with, will cause the review of the refugee applications to be delayed very, very substantially.